A group of researchers from UBC are looking to hear from Shuswap residents about their health care priorities.

The research project called the Rural Evidence Review (RER), which is being undertaken by the university’s Centre for Rural Health Research seeks to collect evidence from rural British Columbians that can be applied to planning health care in rural communities.

Once evidence is collected and reviewed by the RER researchers it will be passed along to policy makers and health care administrator across the province in order to inform their decisions.

The survey prepared by the RER researchers to collect information from rural residents can be completed online or through a confidential telephone interview. The online survey, which the researchers say takes only 10 minutes to complete can be found at: https://ubc.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_77zOjfWWBNV3wax.

Those looking to schedule a telephone interview with the research team can contact the project co-ordinator Christine Carthew at christine.carthew@ubc.ca.

There is no pressing deadline for filling out the survey as new information will be collected until April 2021.

Along with the survey, the RER research team is putting together a rural citizen advisory committee to provide local input about rural health care needs in B.C., give feedback on the research project and help plan how to share the results of the project. Those interested in participating in the committee’s work can contact Carthew for more information.